the north of Jerusalem, believed to be the burial place of Helena, queen of Adiebene. What therefore are they? Some of them, from their magnificence, and the immense labour necessary to form the numerous repositories they contain, might lay claim to regal honours; and there is one which appears to have been constructed for the purpose of inhuming a single individual. The Karan Jews, of all other the most tenacious in adhering to the customs of their ancestors, have, from time immemorial, been in the practice of bringing their dead to this place for interment ; although this fact was not wanted to prove it an ancient Jewish cemetery, as will be seen in the sequel. The sepulchres themselves, according to the ancient practice, are stationed in the midst of the gardens. From all these circumstances, are we not authorized to seek here for the Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea, who, as a pious Jew, necessarily had his burying place in the cemetery of his countrymen, among the graves of his forefathers? the Jews were remarkable for their rigid adherence to this custom : they adorned their burial places with trees and gardens: and the tomb of this Jew is accordingly described as being in a garden; and it was "in the place where our Saviour was crucified." Of what nature was that place of crucifixion? It is very worthy of observation, that every one of the evangelists, and among these, "he that saw it and bare record," affirm, that it "the place of a skull;" that is to say, a public cemetery, "called in the Hebrew, Golgotha;" without the city, and very near to one of its gates. St. Luke calls it Calvary, which has the same signification. The church, supposed to mark the site of the Holy Sepulchre, exhibits no where the slightest evidence which might entitle it to either of these appellations. Can there be therefore aught of impiety or of temerity in venturing to surmise, that upon the opposite summit, now called mount Sion, without the walls, the crucifixion of the Messiah was actually accomplished? Perhaps the evidence afforded by existing documents may further illustrate this most interesting subject. These will now be enumerated.

was

Upon all the sepulchres at the base of this mount; which, "as the place of a skull," we have the authority of the Gospel for calling either Calvary or Golgotha, whether the place of crucifixion or not; there are inscriptions in Hebrew and in Greek. The Hebrew inscriptions are the most effaced: of these it is difficult to make any tolerable copy. Besides the injuries they have sustained by time, they have been covered by some carbonaceous substance, either bituminous or fumid, which rendered the task of transcribing them yet more arduous. The Greek inscriptions are brief and legible, consisting of immense letters deeply carved in the face of the rock, either over the door, or by the side, of the sepulchres. Upon the first we observed these characters.

+ тНСАГІАС CIWN

OF THE · HOLY
SION.

Having entered by the door of this sepulchre, we found a spacious chamber cut in the rock, connected with a series of other subterranean apartments, one leading into another, and containing an extensive range of receptacles for the dead, as in those excavations before alluded to, but which appear of more recent date, lying to the north of Jerusalem, at a more considerable distance from the city; and also as in the Crypta of the Necropolis near Alexandria in Egypt. Opposite to the entrance, but lower down in the rock, a second, and a similar aperture, led to another chamber beyond the first. Over the entrance to this, also, we observed an inscription, nearly obliterated, but differing from the first by the addition of two letters. +HN..

THC

AT ACCIWN

Having reached the extremity of the second chamber, we could proceed no further, owing to the rubbish which obstructed our passage. Perhaps the removal of this may, at some future period, lead to other discoveries. It was evident that we had not attained the remotest part of these caverns. There were others with similar Greek inscriptions, and one which particularly attracted our notice, from its extraordinary coincidence with all the circumstances attaching to the history of our Saviour's tomb. The large stone that once closed its mouth had been, perhaps for ages, rolled away. Stooping down to look into it we observed, within, a fair sepulchre, containing a repository, upon one side only, for a single body; whereas, in most of the others, there were two, and in many of them more than two. It is placed exactly opposite to that which is now called mount Sion. As we viewed this sepulchre, and read upon the spot the description given of Mary Magdalene and the disciples coming in the morning, it was impossible to divest our minds of the probability that here might have been the identical tomb of Jesus Christ; and that up the steep which led to it, after descending from the gate of the city, the disciples strove together, when “John did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre." They are individually described as stooping down to look into it; they express their doubts as to the possibility of removing so huge a stone, that when once fixed and sealed, it might have baffled every human effort. But upon this, as upon the others already mentioned, instead of a Hebrew or a Phenician inscription, there were the same Greek characters, destitute only

of the Greek cross prefixed in the former instances. The inscription stood like the two first lines of the inscription in the preceding page, excepting the cross, the letters being very large, and deeply carved in the rugged surface of the rock.

The Hebrew inscriptions, instead of being over the entrances, were by the side of the doors. Having but little knowledge of the characters with which they were written, all that could be attempted was, to make as faithful a representation as possible of every incision upon the stone, without attempting to supply any thing by conjecture: and even admitting, in certain instances, doubtful traces, which were perhaps casualties caused by injuries the stone had sustained, having no reference to the legend. The following characters appeared upon the side of the entrance to a sepulchre somewhat further toward the west than the last described.

From the imperfect state of this inscription, and the decomposition of the rock itself whereon it is placed, the copy may be liable to error. It was made, how ever, with great care, and due attention was paid to the position of the lines. The words of the inscription are supposed to be Arabic, expressed in Hebrew and Phenician characters. The arrow headed character occurs here, as in the inscriptions at Telmessus.

All the face of this mountain, along the dingle supposed to be the vale of Gehinnon by Sandys, is marked by similar excavations. Some of these, as may be seen by reference to a former note, did not escape

his searching eye; although he neglected to observe their inscriptions, probably from keeping the beaten track of pilgrims going from mount Sion to the mount of Olives, and neglecting to cross the valley in order to examine them more nearly. The top of the mountain is covered by ruined walls and the remains of sumptuous edifices: those he also noticed; but he does not even hint at their origin. Here again we are at a loss for intelligence; and future travellers will be aware of the immense field of inquiry which so many undescribed remains belonging to Jerusalem offer to their observation. If the foundations and ruins as of a citadel may be traced all over this eminence, the probability is, that this was the real mount Sion; that the Gehinnon of Sandys, and of many other writers, was in fact the valley of Millo, called Tyropœon by Josephus, which separated Sion from mount Moriah, and extended as far as the fountain Siloa, where it joined the valley of Jehoshaphat. The sepulchres will then appear to have been situated beneath the walls of the citadel, as was the case in many ancient cities. Such was the situation of the Grecian sepulchres in the Crimea, belonging to the ancient city of Chersonesus, in the minor peninsula of the Heracleotæ. The inscriptions already noticed seem to favour this position; and if hereafter it should ever be confirmed, the remarkable things belonging to mount Sion," of which Pococke says there are no remains in the hill now bearing that appellation, will in fact be found here. "The Garden of the Kings, near the pool of Siloam, where Manasseh and Amon, kings of Judah, were buried;" the cemetery of the kings of Judah; the traces and remains of Herod's palaces, called after the names of Cæsar and Agrippa; " together with the other places mentioned by Nehemiah." All along the side of this mountain, and in the rocks above the valley of Jehoshaphat, upon the eastern side of Jerusalem, as far as the sepulchres of Zechariah and Absalom, and above these, almost to the top of the mount of Olives, the Jews resident in the city bury their dead, adhering still to the cemetery of their ancestors; but having long lost the art of constructing the immense sepulchres now described, they content themselves in placing Hebrew inscriptions upon small upright slabs of marble, or of common limestone, raised after the manner at present generally in use throughout the East.

LEAVING the mountain where all these sepulchres are hewn, and regaining the road which conducts toward the east, into the valley of Jehoshaphat, we passed the fountain Siloa, and a white mulberry-tree which is supposed to mark the spot where the Oak Rogel stood. Hence we ascended to the summit of the mount of Olives; passing, in our way, a number

of Hebrew tombs. The Arabs upon the top of this mountain are to be approached with caution, and with a strong guard. Here indeed we stood upon holy ground; and it is a question, which might reasonably be proposed to Jew, Christian, or Mahometan, whether, in reference to the history of their respective nations, it be possible to attain a more interesting place

of observation. So commanding is the view of Jerusalem afforded in this situation, that the eye roams over all the streets, and around the walls, as if in the survey of a plan or model of the city. The most conspicuous object is the mosque, erected upon the site and foundations of the temple of Solomon: this edifice may perhaps be considered as the finest specimen of Saracenic architecture which exists in the world. But this view of Jerusalem serves to strengthen the objections urged against the prevailing opinion concerning the topography of the ancient city. D'Anville believed that ancient and modern Jerusalem were very similarly situated; that by excluding what is now called Calvary, and embracing the whole of what is now called mount Sion, we should have an area equal in extent to the space which was occupied by the walls and buildings before the destruction of the holy city by Vespasian and Titus. But this is by no means true: a spectator upon the mount of Olives, who looks down upon the space enclosed by the walls of Jerusalem in their present state, as they have remained since they were restored in the sixteenth century by Soly man the son of Selim, and perhaps have existed from the time of Adrian, must be convinced that, instead of covering two conspicuous hills, Jerusalem now occupies one eminence alone; namely, that of Moriah, where the temple stood of old, and where, like a phenix that has arisen from the ashes of its parent, the famous mosque of Omar is now situated. It is probable that the whole of mount Sion has been excluded; and that the mountain covered by ruined edifices, whose base is perforated by ancient sepulchres, and separated from mount Moriah by the deep trench, or Tyropoon, extending as far as the fountain Siloa, toward the eastern valley, is, in fact, that eminence which was once surmounted by the "bulwarks, towers, and regal buildings" of the house of David. There seems to be no other method of reconciling the accounts which ancient authors give of the space occupied by the former city; these in no wise correspond with its present appearance: and the strange temerity which endeavours to warp the text of an historian, so as to suit existing prejudices, and the interests of a degrading superstition, cannot surely be too eagerly scouted by every friend of truth and science. Eusebius allows a distance of twenty-seven stadia, or three miles and three furlongs, for the circumference of the ancient city. The circuit of the modern town does not exceed two miles and a half, or twenty stadia, according to the measure of Eusebius. We cannot therefore, without including this mountain, embrace an area sufficiently extensive even for the dimensions afforded by Eusebius. But supposing that the ancient Cryptæ do mark the position of the regal sepulchres, in the midst of the vast cemetery of the ancient Jews, where the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea was also possibly situated, then it will appear evident that the mountain standing to the

south of that deep trench or valley, which Sandys has described as the valley of Gehinnon, where the sepulchres appear which now exhibit, in so many instances, the words of an inscription,

+ ТНСАГІАС
CIWN

was, in fact, mount Sion; opposed, upon the south, to Moriah, and divided from it by this valley. That the summit of this mountain was formerly included within the walls of the ancient city, the remains upon it, at this hour, not only of walls, but of sumptuous edifices, seem forcibly to demonstrate. In this view of the subject, the topography of the city seems more reconcileable with ancient documents. The present church of the Holy Sepulchre, and all the trumpery attached to it, will, it is true, be thrown into the back ground: but the sepulchres of the kings of Judah, so long an object of research, do then become a prominent object in the plan; the possible site of our Saviour's tomb may be denoted; and

Siloa's brook, that flow'd Fast by the Oracle of God,

will continue in the situation assigned for it by Christian writers of every sect and denomination, since the age of the apostles, and earliest fathers of the church.

It was upon the mount of Olives that the Messiah delivered his prediction concerning the downfal of Jerusalem; and the army of Titus encamped upon the very spot where its destruction had been foretold. Not that, by the introduction of this fact, any allusion is here intended to the particular place shown as "the rock of the prediction." The text of the evangelist proves that our Saviour, when he delivered the prophecy, was "at the descent of the mount of Olives," although in such a situation that "he beheld the city, and wept over it." the city, and wept over it." Whether the tenth legion of the Roman army was stationed upon the summit or side of the mountain, cannot now be ascertained; neither is the circumstance worth a moment's consideration. We found, upon the top, the remains of several works, whose history is lost. Among these, were certain subterraneous chambers, of a different nature from any of the Cryptæ we had before seen. One of them had the shape of a cone of immense size; the vertex alone appearing level with the soil, and exhibiting, by its section at the top, a small circular aperture: the sides extending below to a great depth, were lined with a hard red stucco, like the substance covering the walls of the subterraneous galleries which we found in the sandy isle of Aboukir, upon the coast of Egypt. This extraordinary piece of antiquity, which, from its conical form, may be called a subterraneous pyramid, is upon the very pinnacle of the mountain. It might easily escape observation, although it is of such considerable size; and perhaps

this is the reason why it has not been noticed by preceding travellers. We could not find any appearance of an entrance, except by the circular aperture, which is not unlike the mouth of a well, level with the surface of the mountain. This Crypt has not the smallest resemblance to any place of Christian use or worship. Its situation upon the pinnacle of a mountain rather denotes the work of pagans, whose sacrilegious rites upon "the high places," are so often alluded to in Jewish history. Perhaps some light may be thrown upon its history by the observations of Adrichomius, who speaks of the fane constructed by Solomon, upon the top of the mount of Olives, for the worship of Astaroth, the idol of the Sidonians. The Venus of Paphos was represented by a symbol which had the peculiar form of this Crypt; that is to say, a cone; but the Phenician Astaroth, and the Paphian goddess, were one and the same divinity. When Josias overthrew the heathen idols, and cut down the groves, which happened rather more than six centuries before the time of our Saviour, the Adytum, or Crypt, appropriated to the rites of Astaroth remained; for it is plainly stated in Scripture, that the place was not destroyed, but "defiled,” and made a receptacle for "the bones of men;" the greatest of all pollutions, as may be seen by reference to the history of the building of Tiberias upon the lake Genesareth; when, on account of sepulchres found there, it was necessary to grant extraordinary privileges to persons who would reside on the polluted spot. To this species of pollution the Crypt now described seems to have been condemned, from the very remote period; and it may be presumed, that a place which had once become an ossuary, or charnel house, among the Jews, would never be appropriated to any other use among the inhabitants of Judea. If it be observed, that the If it be observed, that the painted stucco, with which the interior of this is coa!ed, denotes a more recent epocha in the history of the arts; then the walls of the Cryptæ near the pyramids of Egypt, and in other parts of the East; nay, even the surface of the Memphian sphinx, which has remained so many ages exposed to all attacks of the atmosphere, may be instanced, as still exhibiting the same sort of cement, similarly coloured, and equally unaltered.

About forty years before the idolatrous profanation of the mount of Olives by Solomon, his afflicted parent, driven from Jerusalem by his son Absalom, came to this eminence to present a less offensive sacrifice; and, as it is beautifully expressed by Adrichomius, "flens, et nudis pedibus, Deum adoravit.” What a scene does the sublime, though simple, description given by the prophet, picture to the imagination of every one who has felt the influence of filial piety, but especially of the traveller standing upon the spot where the aged monarch gave to Heaven the offering of his wounded spirit. "And David went up by the ascent of mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered; and he went barefoot; and all the people that was with him covered every man his head; and they went up weeping." Abstracted from every religious view, and considered solely as a subject for the most gifted genius in poetry or in painting, it is perhaps impossible to select a theme more worthy the exercise of exalted talents. Every thing that is sublime and affecting seems to be presented in the description of the procession or march of David, in his passage across the Kedron; and particularly in the moment when the ark of the covenant is sent back, and the aged monarch, having in vain entreated Ittai to leave him, begins to ascend the mountain, preceded by the various people said to form the van of the procession. Every wonderful association of natural and of artificial features, of landscape and of architecture, of splendid and diversified costume, of sacred pomp, and of unequalled pathos, dignify the affecting scene: here a solemn train of mourners; there the seers, the guardians and companions of the ark; men, women, children, warriors, statesmen, citizens, priests, Levites, counsellors; with all the circumstances of the grandeur displayed by surrounding objects; by the waters of the torrent; by the sepulchres of the valley; by the lofty rocks, the towers, bulwarks, and palaces of Sion; by the magnificent perspective on every side; by the bold declivities and lofty summits of mount Olivet; and, finally, by the concentration of all that is great and striking in the central group, distinguished by the presence of the afflicted monarch.

As we descended from the mountain, we visited an olive ground, always mentioned as the Hortus Oliveti or Garden of Gethsemane. This place is, not without reason, shown as the scene of our Saviour's agony the night before his crucifixion, both from the circumstances of the name it still retains, and its situation with regard to the city. Titus, it is true, cut down all the wood in the neighbourhood of Jerusa

lem; and were this not the case, no reasonable person would regard the trees of the place as a remnant of so remote an age; notwithstanding the story of the olive formerly shown in the citadel of Athens, and supposed to bear date from the foundation of the city. But as a spontaneous produce, uninterruptedly resulting from the original growth of this part of the mountain, it is impossible to view even these with

indifference. We found a grove of aged olive-trees of most immense size, covered with fruit, almost in a mature state: from this circumstance we were unable to view or to collect blossoms from any of those trees, and are yet ignorant of their specific nature. That the olive of Jerusalem is of the same species with the European olive, we do not absolutely affirm; the leaves being considerably broader, and more silvery underneath than in any, either of the wild or cultivated varieties which we have seen. We provided ourselves with specimens from these trees for our herbarium, and have found few things more grat

ifying than were these trifles, as presents to those friends who wished to obtain memorials from the Holy Land. It is truly a curious and an interesting fact, that, during a period of little more than two thousand years, Hebrews, Assyrians, Romans, Mosiems, and Christians, have been successively in possession of the rocky mountains of Palestine; yet the olive still vindicates its parental soil, and is found, at this day, upon the same spot which was called by the Hebrew writers, "mount Olivet," and "the mount of Olives," eleven centuries before the Christian

era.

BETHLEHEM, Written Bethlechem by Reland, is six miles from Jerusalem. This distance, allowed by almost all authors, exactly corresponds with the usual computed measure, by time, of two hours. Some inaccuracy might therefore be acknowledged to exist in the printed text of Josephus, describing the interval between the two cities as equal only to twenty stadia. Jerom, who passed so many years at Bethlehem, and therefore was best qualified to decide this point, together with Eusebius, Sulpitius Severus, and Phocas, all agree in the distance before stated. But Reland, with his ordinary critical acumen, observes, that the apparent inaccuracy of the Jewish historian arises only from a misconstruction of his words; that he is speaking of the distance from Jerusalem to the camp of the Philistines in the valley between the two cities, and not of their distance from each other. There is at present a particular reason for wishing to establish the accuracy of Josephus in this part of his writings. In the same passage he makes allusion to a celebrated Well, which, both from the account given by him of its situation, and more especially from the text of sacred Scripture, seems to have contained the identical fountain, of whose pure and delicious water we were now drinking. Considered merely in point of interest, the narrative is not likely to be surpassed by any circumstance of pagan history. It may be related with reference both to the words of Scripture, and to the account given by Josephus. David, being a native of Bethlehem, calls to mind, during the sultry days of harvest, a well near the gate of the town, of whose delicious water he had often tasted; and expresses an earnest desire to assuage his thirst by drinking of that limpid spring. "And David longed, and said, O that one would give me drink of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!" The exclamation is overheard by "three of the mighty men whom David had;" by Adino, by Eleazar, and by Shammah. These men, the most mighty of all the chiefs belong ing to David's host, sallied forth, and having fought their way through the Philistine garrison, at Bethle

hem, "drew water from the well, that was by the gate," on the other side of the town, "and took it, and brought it to David." Josephus lays the scene of action in the valley, calling these renowned warriors by the names of Jessaem, Eleazar, and Sebas: he further says, that as they returned back, bearing water through the Philistine camp, their enemies gazing in wonder at the intrepidity of the enterprise, offered them no molestation. Coming into the presence of David, they present to him the surprising testimony of their valour and affection. The aged monarch, receives from their hands a pledge they had so dearly earned, but refuses to drink of water, every drop of which had been purchased by their blood. He returns thanks to the Almighty, who had vouchsafed the deliverance of his warriors from the jeopardy they had encountered; and making libation with the precious gift, pours it upon the ground, an offering to the Lord. the Lord. The ancient character and history of the early inhabitants of Judea are beautifully illustrated by this brief record; but it presents a picture of manners which has not lost its prototype among the Arabs of the same country at this day. The well, too, still retains its pristine renown; and many an expatriated Bethlehemite has made it the theme of his longing and regret. As there is no other well corresponding in its situation with the description given by the sacred historian and by Josephus, and the text of Scripture so decidedly marks its locality, at the furthest extremity of Bethlehem, with reference to Jerusalem, that is to say, near the gate of the town on the eastern side, for David's captains had to fight through all the garrison stationed within the place, before they reached it, this may have been David's Well. It is well known to travellers who have seen the wells of Greece and of the Holy Land, that there exists no monument of ancient times more permanent than even an artificial well; that vases of terra cotta, of the highest antiquity, have been found in cleansing the wells of Athens and if they be natural sources, springing from cavities in the limestone rocks of a country where a well is the most